UK: Boutique Hotel News is delighted to announce the
launch of the BoHos - the Boutique Hotel Guest Experience
Awards.

BHN has teamed up with leading guest feedback and online
reputation management specialist GuestRevu and worldwide renowned
hospitality management institution Glion Institute of Higher
Education, to launch the awards, which will be presented at an
awards ceremony held at the Boutique
and Lifestyle Hotel Summit 2017 in London on May 22/23.

The BoHos will reward the boutique, lifestyle and hybrid hotels
who provide the very best in guest experiences. The awards will be
unique in that the winners will be decided, not by judges, but by
the hotels' guests, using a combination of aggregated verified
guest feedback from review sites and booking engines worldwide, and
direct guest feedback via questionnaires. Each will have a 50 per
cent weighting in a hotel's overall score to give a true picture of
the guest experience provided.

The awards are open to any UK or international boutique, lifestyle
or hybrid hotel. To enter they need to be using a guest feedback
and online reputation management solution in order to provide the
necessary verified guest reviews. If they don't currently have a
solution, GuestRevu is offering a free 2 month trial, worth up to
£300, to hotels who wish to sign up and enter.

The award entry period runs from January 25th to February
28th. Then each hotel's data will be collected over a two month
period, starting from the 1st March. At the end of the two
months, each entrant's guest reviews and direct feedback will be
independently evaluated, scored and ranked by Glion students and
faculty at the renowned Glion Institute of Higher Education in the
UK.

Award Categories
• Best City Hotel 1 - 20 rooms
• Best Country and Coastal Hotel 1-20 rooms
• Best City Hotel 21 - 50 rooms
• Best Country and Coastal Hotel 21-50 rooms
• Best City Hotel 51 rooms and above
• Best Country and Coastal Hotel 51 rooms and above
• Best City Hotel - overall winner
• Best Country and Coastal Hotel - overall winner
• Best International Hotel - overall winner

Piers Brown, CEO of IHM said: "We're delighted to launch the BoHos
with GuestRevu. Online reviews - which reflect the overall guest
experience - are more important than ever for hoteliers. Not only
are they hugely influential in 'humanising' travel decisions, they
are the barometer which hotels use to monitor whether they are
fulfilling their role and delivering on their promise to the guest.
The BoHos will reward and recognise those hotels who are the very
best at delivering guest satisfaction, by going that extra mile to
give their customers unforgettable hospitality experiences. The
winners will ultimately be chosen by the people who really matter -
the guests themselves."

Francine Heywood, co-founder and director of sales and marketing
at GuestRevu, said: "Guest feedback, both direct through
questionnaires and indirect through online review sites, is one of
the most powerful marketing tools available to hotels, and by
monitoring this and reacting accordingly, hotels can increase
loyalty, brand advocacy and profitability. We're very excited about
working with IHM and Glion on the BoHos so we can honour the very
best hotels in the boutique and lifestyle sector, and celebrate the
fantastic job they are doing in providing amazing service to their
guests."

"Unlike other industry awards, the winners will be decided by the
end user - the hundreds of thousands of guests who leave online
reviews and provide direct feedback, and in doing so, influence
their peers in their travel booking decisions. Online review
platforms need to cater for all sorts of properties and so, by
their very nature, are generic. Just using these as a metric would
mean that there is no room for the unique nature and experience
offered by the hotels operating in the boutique and lifestyle
sectors to make an impact. These awards are here to change that. By
including direct guest feedback scores, the awards will be a
true reflection of the 'guest's choice' for best hotel. " she
added.

"We estimate that more than 60 per cent of UK hotels are not
currently using automated guest feedback or online reputation
management software," says Heywood. "The awards represent a great
opportunity for those who don't yet do so to gain access to this
very powerful marketing tool while giving themselves the chance to
win one of the inaugural BoHo awards."

Vivien Ivanyi, partnership manager of Glion Institute of Higher
Education said: " Glion is delighted to participate in such an
initiative as it provides our students with a real-life project in
the industry on a very relevant topic, online reputation. Since its
foundation in 1962, Glion has been preparing young professionals to
join the world's leading hotels, by constantly adapting its
programs to an ever-changing industry and training the next
generation of talents relevant new tools. This award is an
excellent opportunity for Glion students to demonstrate their level
of customer expertise and showcase our unique institution to
prominent industry leaders and partners."

The awards will be presented at a ceremony the evening before the
2017 Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel Summit in London. Winners and
students from Glion will participate in a seminar at the Summit
discussing best practice in guest feedback and online reputation
management.

For more information about the awards entry and evaluation
process, please contact at Francine Heywood at GuestRevu: francine@guestrevu.com. For more information
about the awards ceremony and the Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel
Summit please contact Lavinia Rusu at lavinia@internationalhospitality.media